Chapter Four of Un Périple au Canada

21 July 2015 Dream Image: E. appears out of nowhere in a tight fitting suit! He’s all charm and attention! Not sure what he wanted. Good to see him. At dinner last evening I recounted the family tree as I know it. S.’s comments were solicitous in reaction to the troublesome content of my forbears’ lives. The term “traumatic” was used. I suppose that while the story can be entertaining to some, the overall thread is problematic at best. Over time the recounting becomes more difficult. Reflections on the lives of these people points to the sufferings they endured, denied and raged against. The narrative of those lives spans close to 200 years. Of those some were fruitful, others less so. Because they were told in a judgmental mode, it is difficult for me to empathize with them, something which makes the recounting all the more difficult. I’m still digesting Peggy’s Cove: it is located “so out there” I can’t begin to imagine how people lived, worked and thrived there, especially those winter months when storms rage and growl. Such a description can be considered the simplistic view of someone just passing by, judging, comparing and forgetting that his presence is value neutral, that the success of the community is based on the strength and tenacity of the strong people who built the communities and lived there. And it is: how else but to react to so much newness. Ignorance of History is on the same level as ignorance of the Law: it bites back. And one can feel very foolish.